University of Hawai'i at Manoa Center for Chinese Studies

Ming-Bao Yue, Director

Ni Zhang, Associate Director

Adriana Choi, Academic Support Specialist

Jian Shan, Casual Hire

Please join us for a webinar exploring how entrepreneurship has taken root in unexpected ways across vastly different periods of Chinese history. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow at Copenhagen Business School, Adam Frost will uncover the hidden world of informal labor brokering in Maoist China, revealing how underground networks of labor recruiters bypassed rigid state systems to match workers with jobs. These brokers forged documents, bribed officials, and leveraged personal ties to create a shadow labor market that reshaped work and challenged the limits of state control. Assistant Professor of Global Commerce at Denison University, Leksa Lee will bring us to the contemporary culture industry in China, where firms partner with local governments to build “cultural projects.” Her research highlights the ambivalence entrepreneurs feel toward the state, showing how, despite official support for small businesses, it is often the state’s indirect influence—as regulator, client, and gatekeeper—that defines entrepreneurial success. Together, these talks examine how informal actors and state power co-construct markets in China, past and present. From the resilience of underground economies to the complexities of “entrepreneurial governance,” this event offers fresh insights into how enterprise adapts under constraint.